1. Field of the Invention
This invention applies to continuous forms having multiple copies.
More particularly, the invention applies to continuous forms having removable webbing for separation of the individual sheets making up the multiple copies.
2. Prior Art
The prior art shows the use of continuous forms having margins, said margins having printer feel holes. These feed holes are utilized by the printer tractor feed to guide the continuous forms through the printer.
The prior art also shows the use of stubs running along either side of the continuous form along the entire length of the continuous forms to allow separations of the margins from the remainder of the form so that there are removable margins. The prior art shows that these removable margins with feed holes running along the vertical length of the form.
The prior art also shows the use of a press in order to punch holes in the margins and to insert a stub. The stub allows for the margins to be separated by tearing along the stub. The overlays are made up of the sheets which make up the multiple copies of the continuous form.
The prior art also shows attachment through the use of horizontally placed spot glue to hold items such as envelopes or letterhead onto continuous feed forms, so called "shingling" attachments and the use of horizontal cross-web glue lines to make envelopes.
In the prior art, except for the "shingling" concept described above for the use of attaching items to a page, only the application of glue and stubs and tear-off lines along the vertical axis for separation of individual forms of the overlay is taught.
The problem associated with the prior art addressed by this patent is that certain printers have a print line as well as the tractor feed recessed in the printer, making it difficult to remove a form just printed. Oftentimes the tractor gates, that portion of the printer with teeth to grip the feed holes, are in the way of removing the individual form insofar as the tractor gates are holding a used form at the same time that an unused form is sitting ready below it in the printer. The unused form needs to, in turn, go through the tractor gates. Often the entire next form or a long length of the continuous overlay is wasted to accomplish the desired result.
The present invention provides a stub perpendicular to the continuous margins having tractor feed holes on a carrier sheet. The overlays are designed without margins so as not to engage directly the tractor gates by virtue of having no margins or having margins less than the margins of the bottom carrier sheet. The carrier sheets, below the overlay sheets, have a margin and holes to engage the tractor feeds.
Typically, the overlay is made up of the individual forms attached together to be continuous. The overlay is between three-quarters of an inch and one and one-quarter inch narrower than the carrier sheet. The carrier would have a typical weight of twenty pounds or twenty-four pounds, dependent on the number of parts or overlays involved in the overall set and the weight of the paper of each.
In order to keep the overlays in order and in contact with the carrier, the overlays would be fixed in place, as by glue, along the lines more or less perpendicular to the vertical series of carrier holes.
Additionally, the use of a removable type glue such as that available on POST-IT.TM. note pads, could be utilized in order to provide additional or alternate holding power.
Additional stubs could be added along the vertical axis which would allow the invention to be more firmly glued to the carrier without departing from the inventive concept taught herein.
There are several methods which would allow for the attachment of the overlay sheets to the carrier. Among these are the following (all known in the common art):
1. A disk punch wherein one or more partial disks are punched out of the paper, with a portion of the disk not being punched out, which portion is pushed through the set and flattened vertically against the back of the set in order to hold them together; PA0 2. A keyhole lock punch which is the same as a disk punch except a larger area is pushed back, locking the set in place; PA0 3. Plastic heated flattened stitches which are staples which hold the form (these staples are only about one-quarter of an inch wide); PA0 4. A perforation lock which is one or more vertical slits and which are curved to drive the slit formed through and crimp the paper down (these are currently used exclusively along the vertical margins); PA0 5. A vertical crimp or hook lock, which is commonly used to hold margin alignment of papers along a tractor feed. PA0 6. A cross-web glue line (the most ideal method in this invention). PA0 1. A carrier sheet having carrier holes punched for use with a pin type tractor feed. This carrier sheet would be a continuous roll having vertical strips of holes running on either side for engaging the tractor feed. PA0 2. In addition, there would be overlay sheets which would also be a continuous form of a length more or less equal to the length of the carrier.